Постановление Европейского суда по правам человека от 21.10.2010 «Дело Салиев (Saliyev) против России» [англ.]

, the applicant's rights had not been affected.
41. Further, the Government claimed that under the Media Act nobody could oblige a newspaper to publish an article. They referred to section 42 of that Act (cited above, in the "Relevant domestic law" part), which provided that the editorial board could refuse to publish material. Such a decision could be taken by the editor-in-chief by virtue of section 2 of the Act. As to section 28, referred to by the applicant, it concerned the case of confiscation of a print run, but not to its voluntary withdrawal by the owner.
42. The Government pointed out that Vecherniy Magadan was a municipal newspaper. However, the municipality of Magadan was not a part of the federal or regional system of government. Municipalities in the Russian Federation were independent entities. Their actions could not entail State responsibility under the Convention.
43. The primary purpose of Vecherniy Magadan was to publish official documents of the municipality and, occasionally, articles "of political, social, and cultural interest". The exact position of the newspaper on the local print media market was unknown. However, the municipality itself described it as not very popular: it held third place amongst the city's newspapers (with a print run of 5,184 copies), behind Kolyma Trakt (26,500 copies) and Magadan Pravda (20,000 copies). It was normal for hundreds of copies of Vecherniy Magadan to remain unsold at the end of the distribution period.
44. The Government insisted that the copies had been withdrawn not for political reasons but because the editor-in-chief feared incurring civil liability for having published the applicant's article. According to the documents, only 120 copies had been withdrawn. Therefore, 97.7% of the print run had been distributed to the subscribers, State libraries, street sellers, and so on. The applicant's allegations as to the withdrawal of all 2,000 copies destined for street distribution was unsubstantiated and had been refuted by the findings of the domestic criminal investigation.

B. The applicant's submissions

45. The applicant did not submit any additional observations after the case had been declared admissible by the Court. His earlier observations on the merits of the case can be summarised as follows.
46. The applicant maintained that the copies had been withdrawn for political reasons. The newspaper belonged to the municipality of Magadan and was thus under the control of the public authorities. The article at issue concerned a financial deal involving an influential politician, namely the leader of the pro-government party in the lower chamber of the federal Parliament. It was unclear who had decided to withdraw the copies and when it had happened. Since it had been an act of political censorship, the recall of the copies could not be regarded as a "voluntary withdrawal" as the Government suggested. Russian law prohibited confiscation of a print run or its destruction without prior court authorisation. Therefore, the withdrawal had been unlawful.
47. Furthermore, it was true that there had been no agreement between the applicant and the editorial board as to the number of copies of issue No. 44 to be printed. However, the number of copies printed was indicated in each issue of the newspaper. That could have been regarded as a "public offer" by which the editorial board was bound.
48. Finally, a newspaper was not just a product for sale: an editor could not just withdraw a newspaper from newsstands in the same way as a manufacturer withdrew defective goods from the shops. A newspaper was an instrument for conveying information of public interest and in this capacity it was protected by Article 10. Limitations on freedom of expression were permissible only on the grounds listed in the second paragraph of Article 10. However, no such



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